The first prisoner exchange in 2020 between the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Ukraine has ended, according to an envoy to the Contact Group’s humanitarian subgroup and DPR Human Rights Commissioner Darya Morozova. “The exchange is over,” she was quoted on Thursday as saying.

The prisoner swap took place in the area close to the Gorlovka-Mayorsk checkpoint on the contact line and no incidents were reported. Due to the danger of the spread of the coronavirus, law enforcement officers and prisoners wore protective masks and tried to keep the necessary social distance.

During the swap, Donetsk handed over nine people, and Kiev – 10, TASS quoted Boris Gryzlov, the Russian envoy to the Contact Group on the Donbass settlement, as saying on Thursday.

It was the first swap of 2020 and also the third during the presidency of Volodymyr Zelensky. He was elected last year promising, among other things, to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Zelensky agreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin in December to send prisoners home, and scores were swapped just before the end of the year.

Source: RT